Pricing your services

There are many factors to take into account when setting the price you charge for your service. Your experience on both the technical and business front, your location and the market are the key factors that many people use as the building blocks to reach this very important decision.
The starting point for many people is to talk with a friend or colleague you know well and has experience in the market; they will be able to advise you on where the opportunities are and which clients or recruitment agents are best to talk with. Integro Accounting can also help as many of our clients have recommended some brilliant people to work with.
The pricing of your services can be cross-referenced against websites to give you an indication of the level of pay your technical skill-set will command on a daily or hourly rate, one example is www.ITJobsWatch.co.uk . Other examples can be found in the guise of the many specialist recruitment agencies in the market.

These websites will be able to give you an indication of your potential chargeable rate and the number of roles in and around your area, and might tempt you to consider a slightly longer commute for greater rewards. Travel costs are one of the many allowable expenses. Expenses – what a contractor can claim through their Limited company.

The rates that many of these website and agencies state will have a banding rate for your skill-set and this is where your business experience will come into the equation, as the stronger your negotiating skills are then the higher up the band you are likely to settle.

Continuously learning and expanding your skill set is encouraged in every walk of life and for consultants, contractors and freelancers this is no different. In many instances, taking a course or learning a new skill will mean you will be able to charge a higher rate in your next role. The costs are likely to be both business and tax allowable so that they can be offset against your company tax bill; it will have to qualify as a ‘yes’ if asked ‘is this expense “wholly and exclusively for business”’.